star wars: the holocrone of faith
30,548 years BBY
Chapter 1: Flashbacks
``Life is a gift given to you by the force; do not waste it like it is nothing of value, save those who have problems with handling it with care´´
All that Cos could feel was agony, agony and fear of that al those visions that he have seen were to be true, he did not want to lose his padawan that way the visions had shown him, Not like the way he had lost his first padawan in the explosion on Nar Shaadaa during a mission, and the grin on the bounty hunters face when he saw how big the damage was that he had caused, Those clear and clean visions of her kept him awake at night nagging their way into his mind. Everything he could see in her soft but ever so determine face was a sense of peace and control, and her words that kept repeating over and over again``-no Cod! it will be alright, I will be fine, but you must go, I will be right behind you, I promise!...´´
Suddenly two lines of the very first thing that Cos had ever learned flashed through his mind, ``-There is no emotion, there is peace,There is no passion, there is serenity´´, oh how he wished it was so but he just couldn't believe that that would ever be the truth as long as he had her.
Cos opened his eyes widely in both shock and terror only to find that he was still dark in his bedroom in the temple, he took a quick glance at his chrono, it showed 05:45 local time.
- no need to go back to sleep, he thought and rubbed his eyes, his head still full of visions and the dream he had just had, or was it a dream, it all felt so real to him, he got up, put on his robes and started to walk down to the big main hall of the Jedi temple, that had newly become the new headquarter of the Jedi since their older temple had become so old that whatever you touched, would wither to dust if you touched it.
When he finally turned around the right corner after wandering around trying to find his way in the labyrinthlike passageways of the temple to arrive the main entrance, he could both feel the presence and hear the voice of his former master calling his name, -Cos!, where are you going at this hour, she said as she caught up with him.
– I just need to get some fresh air Master Maera, he said with a halfhearted frown, -that´s all.
- Cos, we both know that's not it, there is troubling you, I know when you´re not telling me the truth, I have known you ever since you were just a toddler, Maera said as she placed a firm hand on Cos´s shoulder, - is it about your padawan? You can tell me.
Cos thought for a moment while overlooking the marvelous, mile high skyscrapers of Coruscant and then turned to face Master Maera.
– I am just afraid to lose her like I lost my last padawan, you know that I love her, this mission is to dangerous for her, he said while fighting to hold back a tear.
– Let me ask you something Cos, do you remember your first mission on your own?
– Yes of course I do, but what does it have to do with all this Master Maera? He asked with a frown and turned away to observe the already full sky lanes of hovercabs and hovertaxis with early morning workers on their way to start the morningshifts of the day.
– I remember that I was just as terrified as you are now when the council told me that you were ready for your first mission on your own, I did, as you most likely do now, thought that the mission was to dangerous for you but I even remember that you were so eager to prove to the council that you were ready to earn your knighthood, but when you returned to without a scratch and the council told me that you did better than they had expected you to do it, so it´s only natural that you are afraid when your padawan suddenly is out there somewhere on her own, she said while doing a sweeping movement to the sky, -I was just as afraid as you were, she ended
– But it´s still the point that she was scared and I don´t want to send her away when she is in that state of emotion, Cos said, now starting to grow a little impatient with Maera.
– Cos, what have I told you many times before?
– Yes, yes I know fear is a path to ignorance and death.
– correct, and I don´t want either you or your padawan to walk that path, Maera said with a warm smile, and looked down to check the chrono on her arm.
-don´t wo…she started to say but stopped herself with a surpricing feeling when she noticed that Cos was already halfway down the main staircase on his way in to the plazas beneath the temple.
– He he, always on the move, she said to herself with a laugh, but and turned away smiling for herself when she returned to her guard duty while wondering how Cos could have slipped away .
As soon Cos had turned around the first corner and checked to make sure that nobody was around he buried his face in his hands and let go of all the tears that he had forced himself to keep hidden during the conversation with master Maera.
A hoovertaxi hissed with the sound of breaking thrusters right beside him , its sleek but old door slid open and a heavily accented gamorrean voice shouted at him in heavily accented basic " mister, mister where you going? Half price righ now half price now 3 credits only wereeva you go!
Cos looked long at the slightly tilting hoovercab then with a sigh lowered himself into its cabin and pulled the door closed behind him.
The hoovercab speeded away up toward the lower buildings and then accelerated even more as it made its way to the higher sky lanes of the great capital
-wher you go friend, heh, the gamorean grunted as he placed the hoovercab in a sky lane that lead to the central shuttle station.
Cos thought for a moment, tried to collect himself, make himself think clearly about what he should do, tried to listen to the force, but he could hear nothing…
Cos felt disappointed, the force had left its grip around him, he was left with nothing but the painful memories,"you asleep back there or wat?" the gamorean said in an almost angry hissing snarl as he turned to look at Cos.
"Just take me to the central walkway" he said as he sunk even further in to the seat and tried to reach in to the force once more, when it didn´t work this second time Cos pulled out a small round plate, big as the palm of his hand and pressed a button in the center of the plate and suddenly an image appeared before him, a holoimage of her, a holoimage of Aurora, oh, how Cos was thinking of how beautiful she was and hoped that nothing would happen to her"boy who that be? " the gamorean said with at low whistle.
"it is just someone close to me" Cos said as he was awakened from his thoughts with a snap and turned off the holoprojector" how much further is it to the walkway? " he said after a short silence.
"oh not long, probably round 3-4 minutes if no traficjam ahead mate" he said as he veered around a skyscraper and the central walkway became visible in the far away distance.
Cos paid the gamorean the 3 credits´ he owed and got out of the hovertaxi
The air around was unusually damp, Cos even wondered if something in the agricultural monitoring hardware had gone broke. He sighed and pulled the already heavy cape tighter around himself as he walked down the walkway to a pulsing neon sign that read "Faray the red´s Cantina " It was not a fancy place, but today Cos felt that the place did not matter, did not matter at all, he just needed somewhere to sit down and .
His thoughts were swept away to the time when he and Aurora had their first time alone without having to be on a mission, he remembered the restaurant in the center of the republic capital, the fancy dishes of food from every corner of the entire galaxy, luckily by having the privileges of being a Jedi he and Aurora got a good table on the big balcony overlooking the big beautifully ornamented stage where a band played their soothing music, but he had only his eyes on Auroras beautiful face…
His mind came back to him and he found himself gasping for air and he felt several drops of sweat going down his forehead, he wiped them off with the back of his sleeve and stood up and went to the cantina.
The place was small and crowded, as were the minds of the ones who were occupying it. He could feel them, watching him, but he felt that it didn't matter at this moment; he sat down by a table in the darkest corner and ordered a glass of something strong to drown his sorrows with…
After he had spent a few minutes, or maybe it was hours, he had it very hard to judge in this dark and sulky place, he felt that his head was getting really light and his eyes drowsy. Suddenly a sharp beeping sound started to pierce the scilence in the cantina, Cos, whom was feeling a little drowsy could not judge from where the beeping was originating, and decided to ignore it as for now, thinking that it was nothing of interest.
He called after another Jivbajuce straight away.
A small crowd of doubtfully honest entities had gathered around his table to watch the lonely Jedi and a wondering mumbling could now be heard from the crowd.
The beeping sounded once again and Cos then noticed that it was his holoreciever that was beeping, he then got back to his senses and decided that it was worth answering the call, he took out the holoreciever and activated it, an image of the highest councilmember of the jedi order appeared.
" Cos, where have you been, we need you at the temple as soon as possible, we need to inform you about your padawan´s mission, oh and you pick up her sister on the way, we could need some information from her, I am sending you the address to her" the council member said and the conversation was over.
The address showed up
Even though Cos didn´t really felt like leaving the dim lighting of the cantina he eventually convinced himself to get moving.